My all-time favourite LP bar none. If you twist my arm, I will pick Caleidoscopic Gaze. But no weak links here.
I managed to write a few words about the record here:http://www.stereolab.co.uk/forum/stereolab/topic/6809/flat/
― Jeff W, Thursday, 23 March 2017 17:19 (seven years ago) link
NME and Pitchfork OTM re: this one.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 23 March 2017 17:49 (seven years ago) link
woof
― flappy bird, Thursday, 23 March 2017 17:55 (seven years ago) link
it's one thing not to like the band, but to hate this album while loving previous Stereolab albums has never made much sense.
― skip, Thursday, 23 March 2017 18:24 (seven years ago) link
"puncture in the radax permutation" gets my vote, but it's a much better album than i realized at the time. didn't realize how badly i'd misjudged it till last year's stereolab poll.
― Balðy Daudrs (contenderizer), Thursday, 23 March 2017 18:47 (seven years ago) link
in terms of critical reception, i suppose cobra and phases fell victim to the groop's true passions. emperor was a wide-ranging pop record that still retained some of the psycho-electric charge of their early, "grunge era" material, while dots and loops showcased a deepening fascination with then-fashionable electronica (that word). cobra & phases seemed not only to step deliberately out of sync with that, it basically abandoned all interest in the present moment. here, stereolab finally commit fully to the midcentury easy-listening sounds they'd previously mined & repurposed. this was still the late 90s, after all, a period of much edge & avanting...
― Balðy Daudrs (contenderizer), Thursday, 23 March 2017 19:03 (seven years ago) link
Cobra and Phases feels out of time in the best way, while ETK and especially D&L are very much wedded to the time they were released... imo it's got the most delicious sounds and mixing on any of the post-MAQ records
― flappy bird, Thursday, 23 March 2017 19:12 (seven years ago) link
How is Pitchfork "OTM" on this one when the review completely lacks content?
I'll go with "The Spiracles."
― afriendlypioneer, Thursday, 23 March 2017 19:50 (seven years ago) link
Hi Flappy bird, have to kindly disagree that Cobra sounds the best of the post MAQ records. It's always sounded dense and somewhat muddy to me, whereas Dots & Loops sounded more bright and expressive. My favourite production is on Sound Dust where it's much more open and widescreen.
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Thursday, 23 March 2017 22:27 (seven years ago) link
OP HOP
― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 23 March 2017 23:35 (seven years ago) link
But then again this album flows together really nicely
this too is my favorite album by the groop, they really go full on ez vibes here. o'rourke and mcentire killing it with the smooth space age bachelor(ette) sounds.
it's cool how the tracklists just alternates back and forth from o'rourke track to mcentire track.
can't pick one here, i guess my favorites arefuses, people do it all the time, italian shoes continuum, infinity girl, come and play
i also love when they get super chilled out like on "the sphericles" and "velvet water"
― a but (brimstead), Friday, 24 March 2017 00:03 (seven years ago) link
I like Spiracles because it sounds like a High Llamas song.
― afriendlypioneer, Friday, 24 March 2017 00:07 (seven years ago) link
yeah it has a bit of an "ambient brian wilson" thing going on
― a but (brimstead), Friday, 24 March 2017 00:11 (seven years ago) link
I hope you got 200$+ for it. I think there's only 6,000. I looked it up bc I wanted to hear the full Blue Milk but it's ridiculously expensive on discogs― flappy bird, Thursday, March 23, 2017 10:56 AM
― flappy bird, Thursday, March 23, 2017 10:56 AM
Nah, this was way back only a couple years after it came (before Mary even died, iirc). I probably got $20-30 at best.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 24 March 2017 03:37 (seven years ago) link
All these songs sound the same!
― dance cum rituals (Moka), Friday, 24 March 2017 04:27 (seven years ago) link
I'm joking guys I love Stereolab. Hard to decide today I'm going for Op Hop but Blips, Drips is a second close.
― dance cum rituals (Moka), Friday, 24 March 2017 04:30 (seven years ago) link
Oh god listening to this one right now and fuses and come and play are excellent as well.
― dance cum rituals (Moka), Friday, 24 March 2017 04:40 (seven years ago) link
Busta Rhymes sampling "Come and Play in the Milky Night" was an interesting choice
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Friday, 24 March 2017 05:16 (seven years ago) link
*should say Jay Dee sampled it
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Friday, 24 March 2017 05:17 (seven years ago) link
All these songs sound the same
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Friday, 24 March 2017 12:12 (seven years ago) link
It's no Sound Dust (their best, IMO) and people rush to defend it 'cos it got bricked by NME, but I don't agree with you, Alex. You could make the "Stereolab on autopilot" argument about most of their albums post-ETK, but it's not really valid unless you're not listening to the albums closely. I don't really think they hit autopilot until they got to Fab Four Suture, which is my least favorite Stereolab album, and I don't really find the two that came after too interesting either.
:)
― afriendlypioneer, Friday, 24 March 2017 13:33 (seven years ago) link
Probably too long, but has some of my favorite stuff by them: Free Design, Blue Milk, Come and Play in the Milky Night. Never got the pfork hate on this (or any later era Stereolab), tho I do remember thinking that review was funny
― Dominique, Friday, 24 March 2017 13:42 (seven years ago) link
Less autopilot, more assembly line. That's according to Latetia's RBMA interview.
― brotherlovesdub, Friday, 24 March 2017 14:56 (seven years ago) link
This album was a huge deal for me at the time. I was 13 years old and Amazon was offering free promotional downloads of "The Free Design" and "Op Hop Detonation." I DL'd those two tracks with the 56k dial-up connection and played that shit to death, especially "The Free Design." Bought the album as soon as it came out in fall of 99 and by summer I had acquired most 'lab albums and was fiending for Japanese imports of Krautrock CDs (all you could really get domestically at the time was a few Can albums). Formative, to say the least.
In hindsight, Cobra feels like their grandest statement to me. Non-stop ear candy (electric harpsichord, clavinet, vibes, and marimbas for days) and gorgeous melodies ("Come And Play..." and the mixolydian glow of "Velvet Water" and "Blue Milk" come to mind in particular). 75 minutes of this is a whole lot to take in, and I see how it might be off-putting for someone with an aversion to the sonic palette of 70s library music. I think it could have been even better if a couple of the weaker tracks were swapped with the two best "Free Design" b-sides, "With Friends Like These" and "Escape Pod (From the World of Medical Observations)." Also anyone who digs Cobra should not sleep on First of the Microbe Hunters, which was unfairly neglected in the wake of Cobra getting fucked over by critics.
So I'm voting for "The Free Design," which may or may not be the best song on the album, but has surely had the greatest impact on me personally. Also gotta love that ridiculous "Dancing Queen" trumpet quote in the outro - surely Jim O'Rourke's idea, right?
― J. Sam, Friday, 24 March 2017 15:03 (seven years ago) link
For me the sound of this album is a little too smoothed out. It's too slick. I think if anything they got a little too "professional" sounding at this stage, like there are a number of points where it's all tastefully arranged trumpets and ridiculously proficient bass playing. My favorite stuff by them always had a looser edge. Even when they tightened things up on stuff like "Ping Pong" there was still a lot of air in there. The production on Cobra feels really suffocating.
― Position Position, Friday, 24 March 2017 15:41 (seven years ago) link
no it's good that's it's smooth and slick
― a but (brimstead), Friday, 24 March 2017 15:44 (seven years ago) link
Yeah.
How can you hate on tasteful horn arrangements and ridiculously proficient bass playing?
― afriendlypioneer, Friday, 24 March 2017 15:49 (seven years ago) link
Whoa! I never noticed that Dancing Queen horn quote in The Free Design. Definitely O'Rourke
― flappy bird, Friday, 24 March 2017 17:15 (seven years ago) link
I think it's O'Hagan TBH.
― afriendlypioneer, Friday, 24 March 2017 17:24 (seven years ago) link
Could be, but O'Rourke has gone on record calling Dancing Queen one of his favorite songs:http://stevestate.blogspot.com/2006/07/visiting-this-planet.html
― J. Sam, Friday, 24 March 2017 17:30 (seven years ago) link
flappy bird, I'm glad you found that live collection, cool to see it still has some life. It was put together over 15 years ago by Stereolab forum members
― Moodles, Friday, 24 March 2017 17:48 (seven years ago) link
this is a sweet cover version by Mifune
https://open.spotify.com/track/1fX95f0Gm8L2Q29Rcr8XpU
― Moodles, Friday, 24 March 2017 17:52 (seven years ago) link
I think it's definitely O'Rourke - he recorded the track, arranged the horns, and yeah Dancing Queen is one of his favorite songs ever.
― flappy bird, Friday, 24 March 2017 18:36 (seven years ago) link
O'hagan did the brass arrangements, not O'rourke, fwiw
― a but (brimstead), Friday, 24 March 2017 19:38 (seven years ago) link
maybe I misread something
― a but (brimstead), Friday, 24 March 2017 19:39 (seven years ago) link
That's how I'm reading it, but I looked into the Abba connection and can't find anything suggestion O'Hagan is a fan, whereas O'Rourke seems to talk about "Dancing Queen" in quite a few places.
― afriendlypioneer, Friday, 24 March 2017 19:41 (seven years ago) link
Fab Four Suture may be Stereolab on autopilot but it still has the magic-eye seeing puzzle like "Kyberneticka Babicka", "Interlock" and "Excursions Into Oh-A-Oh" which is one of the few latter day Stereolab tracks to actually rock.
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Friday, 24 March 2017 19:44 (seven years ago) link
"Exercusions Into Oh-A-Oh" is definitely the highlight.
― afriendlypioneer, Friday, 24 March 2017 19:50 (seven years ago) link
^ totally agree. Also happy to see you're into Sound Dust, very underrated abum
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Friday, 24 March 2017 19:50 (seven years ago) link
So, I've decided to give this a quick re-listen to see if I've missed anything, and nope, it's exactly the same as I remember it being, overly slick and quite samey from top to bottom and it's failing to excite me in the way that Mars Audiac Quintet or Emperor Tomato Ketchup do... although the breakdown on 'Italian Shoes Continuum' is quite nice.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Friday, 24 March 2017 20:21 (seven years ago) link
Anyway, voting for 'Puncture in the Radax Permutation', which strikes me as being the painfully obvious highlight.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Friday, 24 March 2017 20:27 (seven years ago) link
Didn´t know about this extended version of Blue Milk.
― EvR, Friday, 24 March 2017 20:53 (seven years ago) link
Turrican OTM
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Friday, 24 March 2017 21:21 (seven years ago) link
xp whoa thanks for finding that! yeah extended Blue Milk is not on youtube afaik, and vinyl copies with it are v expensive
― flappy bird, Friday, 24 March 2017 21:29 (seven years ago) link
It's a shame that one has to listen for roughly about 8 and a half minutes before 'Blue Milk' generates any excitement.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Friday, 24 March 2017 21:39 (seven years ago) link
I sold this album and Dots and Loops a while ago. I ripped them first, and the 3 songs mentioned by Ross at the top of the thread are all in my library, but I can't remember how any of them go.
It's a shame because I had the chance to see Stereolab around this time and passed it up because I wasn't a fan of this period but I never saw them again. In fact I only saw them once around ETK time.
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 24 March 2017 21:58 (seven years ago) link
Just realised I've never even heard Margerine Eclipse or Fab Four Suture (didn't even know the latter existed!). I will rectify that at some point.
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 24 March 2017 22:00 (seven years ago) link
Margerine Eclipse is the only Stereolab album that's managed to choke me up a little... "Feel and Triple"
― afriendlypioneer, Friday, 24 March 2017 22:14 (seven years ago) link
Maybe worth noting that there's a "Blaue Milch" on the Peter Thomas Warp Back to Earth compilation – I forget what the connection is between the two "Blue Milk" versions.
― with hidden noise, Saturday, 25 March 2017 02:57 (seven years ago) link
I am a little disappointed that the liner notes suggest that the title should be "Italian Shoes/Continuum" rather than "Italian Shoes Continuum".
― with hidden noise, Friday, 20 September 2019 03:06 (four years ago) link
Italian Shoes Continuum is almost too much as a title - like something a Stereolab Title Generator would come up with
― Zelda Zonk, Friday, 20 September 2019 04:29 (four years ago) link
it's a perfect title for a perfect song
― flappy bird, Thursday, 17 October 2019 01:01 (four years ago) link
had no idea the full length Blue Milk had extra shit in the beginning. Completely blown away
― flappy bird, Thursday, 17 October 2019 01:02 (four years ago) link
― afriendlypioneer, Friday, March 24, 2017 10:49 AM (two years ago)
haha yeah is anyone ever like man this band is great just listen to that shitty bass playing
― j., Thursday, 19 December 2019 00:09 (four years ago) link
Nirvana was very popular
But seriously, I was listening to this the other day, and it occurred to me how odd it is that this album was a bit of a disappointment, but if an unknown band came out of the blue with Cobra and Phases, they'd be hailed as insane geniuses.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Thursday, 19 December 2019 00:15 (four years ago) link
say what??! novoselic was a great bassist
― j., Thursday, 19 December 2019 00:19 (four years ago) link
Lol, agree to disagree. I suppose he did an ok Kim Deal impersonation.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Thursday, 19 December 2019 00:21 (four years ago) link
Time has indeed been kind to Cobra and Phases. it was the first Lab album that I picked up on release, having consumed their prior output, starting with Refried Ectoplasm & working forward & back, but hung up on Dots & Loops as everyone was at the time, to my recollection. When Cobra came out it seemed to me a pretty pale retread of Dots, but I feel glad to be very much mistaken. Over the years it revealed itself, as most of their albums have tended to, as its own thing.
― the public eating of beans (Sparkle Motion), Thursday, 19 December 2019 04:32 (four years ago) link
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles)
THANK YOU!
― flappy bird, Thursday, 19 December 2019 05:49 (four years ago) link
THEY would be, not YOU
― j., Thursday, 19 December 2019 05:57 (four years ago) link
this is by far their worst album.
― Legacy of Banality (Pillbox), Thursday, 19 December 2019 06:01 (four years ago) link
Their worst? They put out a whole lot of stuff. I don't think anything album after Mary passed really quite measures up.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Thursday, 19 December 2019 06:40 (four years ago) link
subjective obv, but I don't think the over-reliance on the influence/input of Sean O'Hagen & John McEntyre was the best thing for their sound. I just find this album really washy and lacking in definition.
― Legacy of Banality (Pillbox), Thursday, 19 December 2019 06:58 (four years ago) link
if that seems overly harsh, Stereolab are basically the closest thing I have to a 'favorite band,' so it is really a measure of levels of love.
― Legacy of Banality (Pillbox), Thursday, 19 December 2019 07:00 (four years ago) link
It's not particularly focused, and probably too long, but it has so many excellent songs and ideas going on, it's hard for me to dislike it. Later records like Margerine Eclipse and Chemical Chords have more coherent concepts, but also too many tracks that are just ok and don't do much.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Thursday, 19 December 2019 07:13 (four years ago) link
I should probably revisit it. Sound-dust, Margerine Eclipse, Chemical Chords & Not Music have many terrific high points among them, though I agree that their consistency/quality control is not up to the standards of their 90s output. It's sad to think that at least some of that probably had to do with Mary Hansen's absence.
Peng! - Dots & Loops is such phenomenal run of albums, it's easy to see how anything short of those high water marks could be taken as a let-down by comparison.
The Oscillations from the Anti-Sun comp is what I return to most w/r/t Stereolab's post-Dots & Loops material. It is every bit on par with the other two Switched On comps imo.
― Legacy of Banality (Pillbox), Thursday, 19 December 2019 20:33 (four years ago) link
Oscillations also doesn't have any material post Sound-Dust.
I definitely think losing Mary had a huge impact on the quality of their recordings during the 2000s. I'd also say an under discussed change was losing Morgane Lhote on keyboards. Her playing was in a sweet spot where she was skillful enough to manage more complex songs without being overly technical and noodly, and she often added a funky syncopation to the mix.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Thursday, 19 December 2019 20:47 (four years ago) link
On some days I feel like Sound-Dust and Margerine are their two finest records. Relentlessly beautiful in very different ways
― Davey D, Thursday, 19 December 2019 20:52 (four years ago) link
Margarine Eclipse is one of their best, and the new remaster is the most essential of the recent reissues, by quite a margin.
― everything, Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:05 (four years ago) link
Margerine Eclipse is their best 2000s lp imo. 'Vonal Declosion' is a top-10 Stereolab track for me.
xxp - otm re: Morgane Lhote. I always wondered how much of a contribution Andy Ramsay made to the composition and arrangements as well - was she another undersung part of The Groop?
― Legacy of Banality (Pillbox), Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:11 (four years ago) link
I've tried to love this.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:21 (four years ago) link
Do you not have love in your cold heart
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:26 (four years ago) link
*looks for Jake*
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:31 (four years ago) link
'Vonal Declosion' is a top-10 Stereolab track for me.
otm
― 10,000 mani-gecs (voodoo chili), Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:34 (four years ago) link
^^^
― Davey D, Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:59 (four years ago) link
Margerine Eclipse has a handful of tracks I really love, and a bunch more that bore me
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Thursday, 19 December 2019 23:29 (four years ago) link
I have always thought this one and Sound-Dust are really underrated; not least of all for the very David Axelrod-reminiscent string arrangements throughout. The first section of 'Emergency Kisses' springs to mind immediately as a very much perfect musical moment in that regard.
― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Thursday, 19 December 2019 23:59 (four years ago) link
i think the keyboards, or the keyboard+production combo, are pretty important on cobra phases. i've been thinking for a couple days about how to describe it and it's not right but it occurred to me that dylan's 'wild, thin mercury sound' gets in the right ballpark
― j., Friday, 20 December 2019 00:46 (four years ago) link
In the liner notes, Tim makes special mention of the Farfisa electric harpsichord, which they began using a lot starting with this album.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Friday, 20 December 2019 00:57 (four years ago) link
Cobra is far from their worst. Basically post Margerine Eclipse they ran out of gas. Chemical Chords sounds like demos, and Not Music is an absolutely unceremonious last album.
― the public eating of beans (Sparkle Motion), Friday, 20 December 2019 04:29 (four years ago) link
Chemical Chords has a beguiling sweetness, girl group bounce, post-'60s on the shoreline sunsets, love heightening just as its potential recedes, triumphal sadness. Such gushing probably points to ultimately personal associations; and as we've discussed elsewhere, Sadier hated making it... but I love it dearly. In retrospect, with the brevity of its songs, it seems to be accelerating toward a conclusion. (This makes Not Music rather anticlimactic, I'd agree, though there are some dandy bits on it too). 2008 was no longer Stereolab's moment, and so their backward gazes seem more bittersweet.
Cobra was also my first "new" 'Lab album and holds a special place for me as the sole album I ever bought at a midnight release-day sale. I hope I still have the little promo poster I got with the groop lying down in a circle. The album seems a clear candidate for their most ambitious, somewhere between its ornamentation and its length; it's not quite as endlessly relistenable as Dots & Loops but it's pretty neat.
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Friday, 20 December 2019 05:47 (four years ago) link
― with hidden noise, Thursday, September 19, 2019 10:06 PM (five months ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Zelda Zonk, Thursday, September 19, 2019 11:29 PM (five months ago) bookmarkflaglink
actually this really helps me bc italian shoes is the first downer for me on the album and to know that i should hear this as one fused song rather than two (since i usually don't pay attention to the track breaks) gives me some motivation to try to see the value in italian shoes
with the slash it's more like, a strange occurrence that must be explained, how the shoes lead to the far more abstract and compelling phenomenon of a continuum
― j., Saturday, 29 February 2020 02:51 (four years ago) link
the spiracles also pretty draggy
― j., Saturday, 29 February 2020 02:58 (four years ago) link